Mary Bassett descends from William Bassett of Plymouth as follows:
William Bassett and wife Elizabeth
Joseph Bassett (b. 1635) and wife Mary Lapham
William Bassett (b. 1667) and wife Sarah Sweetland
William Bassett (b. 1694) and wife Mary Crossman
William Bassett (b. 1726) and wife Lydia Fisher
Jedediah Bassett (b. 1751) and wife Elizabeth Chandler
John Chandler Bassett (b. 1795) and wife Martha St. John
Mary Bassett (b. 1831) and husband William L. Clarke
Original Version of Autumn Leaves
Reprint of Autumn Leaves
The Magazine of Poetry, Volume 6
By Charles Wells Moulton
Mary Bassett Clarke
Mrs. Mary Bassett Clarke, was born in Independence, N.Y., November 18th, 1831. She is the daughter of John C. Bassett, a well-to-do farmer of western New York, and Martha St. John Bassett, both persons of education and refinement. She was the seventh in a family of twelve children who lived to maturity. She was educated in Alfred University. Although ill-health limited her opportunities, she was graduated from the university in 1857. At the age of fifteen she commenced to write for publication, under the penname “Ida Fairfield,” in the Flag of our Union. With some interruption by ill-health, she continued many years to be a contributor to that paper, to the Rural New Yorker and to local papers and periodicals. She became the wife of William L. Clarke on September 8th, 1859, and removed to Ashaway, R.I., which place has since been her home. For several years her writings, both prose and verse, have been principally given to periodicals issued by the Seventh-Day Baptists, of which sect she is a member. A collection of her poems has recently been published, entitled “Autumn Leaves” (Buffalo, 1894).